Loughborough University researchers have called for volunteers to help them improve the health of the nation.

Researchers in the School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences want hundreds of people throughout Leicestershire to get involved in a £5m project over the next five years through focus groups, workshops, seminars and public lectures relating to physical activity and health.

The project is being carried out by the Leicester-Loughborough Diet, Lifestyle and Physical Activity Biomedical Research Unit (BRU) and funded by the National Institute of Health Research.

This research venture is a collaboration between clinicians and researchers at Loughborough University and University Hospitals of Leicester.

James King PhD, Senior Research Associate in the BRU at Loughborough University, says it’s crucial that people get involved to give them feedback on their research to help improve people’s health.

He said: “Our research relates to physical activity and health, and we are looking at ways for exercise to improve people’s health.

“We want to interact with the community so we can get feedback from people who will ultimately be affected by the research. Their comments will help shape our research.

“We want to invite people on to campus and engage with them through focus groups, public lectures, seminars and workshops.

“As an example, we do a lot of work with exercise and diabetes so we would be interested in setting up a focus group with people who have Type 2 diabetes and asking ‘what are the key issues for you, and where should we be focusing our research?”

Anyone interested should visit the BRU website at:
http://www.ll.dlpa.bru.nihr.ac.uk/getinvolved-4094.html where you can ‘get involved’ and sign up by filling in an online form.

Alternatively, if you would like any more information please contact the BRU research administrator (c.mottram@lboro.ac.uk).

The BRU has several research studies on-going and are looking for volunteers to take part.

They are currently looking for overweight/obese (body mass index 27-40 kg/m2) men and women (18-50 years) to participate in a six week training study investigating the effects of short bursts of high intensity exercise on outcomes relating to diabetes and heart disease.

Anyone who would like to know more information about this trial please contact Mrs Claire Mottram quoting ‘MetaPredict’ (c.mottram@lboro.ac.uk).

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